The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) defines interoperability as follows:

“The technical or legal compatibility that enables a system or mechanism to be used in conjunction with other systems or mechanisms.”

When the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) community talks about interoperability, they mean that two or more systems can work seamlessly with each other. What they are talking about is enabling cross-chain atomic swaps – swaps in which either both legs happen or neither of them do. Deriving from the Greek ‘atomos’, the word roughly translates to ‘indivisible’. It is indivisibility which ensures both legs of DLT-enabled financial transactions can be actioned,...

Fnality's Product Manager, Simone Cortese, discussed the future of DLT ecosystems and why interoperability holds the key to success at the HQLAx Conference on Transforming the Securities Finance Industry via Distributed Ledger Technology. He highlights his key takeaways and insights in this blog post.

Going back one year to February 2020, I would have never imagined what was about to happen. I was – and probably I still am – in love with the City of London. I love its narrow alleys, its old buildings which seem ready to tell a unique story of trade and people from all over the world. Ilove its corners and squares, the coffee shops. Hence, it’s not hard to believe that, at the beginning of March 2020, as the Governmentannounced the first lockdown advice, I feltsomehow in despair. Yes, I knew what wascoming – butI wasn’t emotionally prepared for that!

What is interoperability?